Interview of Yoshi-P at French Japan Expo by Secrets of Eorzea website

[Elven]

Oh my gawd could people stop discussing the name Thief vs. Rogue. IT'S THE SAME THING.

It wouldn't matter if they called it "Super Stealthy Knifey Slicey Dicey Stealy Man."

It's still..the same... job.

/facepalm

lolz believe what you want

[Tupsi]

lolz believe what you want

Specially when Yoshida said himself in this very interview "We have to think of the people who are new to the series as well", Rogues aren't exactly the same as thieves, least in FF terms. Rogues tend to be what transitioned into 'Assassin' type classes in generic MMOs and very rarely did Rogues even have the ability to 'steal/mug' or anything else a thief could do (like in XI mechanics, control enmity, boost their skill damage dramatically and so on) - You can argue they're the same, but they have subtle differences since each MMO usually treated them differently and in terms of the series ARR is apart of, it never really had the 'rogue' type of class.